Why nobody looked for David Headley’s Mumbai contact?

Bashir Shaikh received Headley at the airport in 2006, helped him check into a SoBo hotel and provided him a mobile phone with a SIM card.

Indian investigators appear to have lost track of Pakistani-American David Headley’s key Mumbai contact who received him at the airport in 2006, helped him check into a SoBo hotel and provided him a mobile phone with a SIM card.

Despite the significant help provided by Bashir Shaikh of Jogeshwari, his name does not feature in the 26/11witnesses’ lists of the Mumbai Crime Branch and the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Headley, who is serving a 35-year prison term in the US for his role in the 26/11attacks, recced targets for the Pakistani terror outfit Lashkar during his visits to India between 2006 and 2008.

During his deposition to a Mumbai court this year, Headley revealed that his handler Dr Tahawwur Rana had identified Bashir as the local contact. Bashir received Headley when he first arrived in the city on September 14, 2006. Bashir’s name also cropped during Headley’s conversations with other Pakistanbased plotters of the November 2008 carnage in which 166 people were killed and over 300 injured.

Despite Bashir’s significance in the case, the prosecution or the defence did not pose any questions about him to Headley during the Pakistani-American’s 50 hours of deposition over several days.

The deposition began in February and ended last week.

“I have no idea about Bashir,” Ujwal Nikam, the special public prosecutor in the case, told Mirror.

Sources in the Mumbai police claimed investigators had no clue about Bashir’s role until Headley mentioned his name during his testimony. But Crime Branch officers said they had questioned Bashir and recorded his statement before releasing him. “We had recorded his statement after Headley’s role in the terror attacks came to light. Bashir had only arranged accommodation for him in the Hotel Outram and helped him on a few occasions during his visits between 2008 and 2009. He had no role in the attacks,” said retired inspector Ramesh Mahale, who was the investigating officer in the case.

Mahale added: “He knew Rana as he had worked in a hotel in Canada in 2003. Rana had told him to help Headley during his maiden visit.”

But Mahale could not provide a convincing explanation as to why Bashir was let off so easily despite his links to people who played a major role in the attacks. Apart from Rana, Bashir apparently also knew Lashkar commander Sajid Mir. Iqbal, an officer with the Pakistani spy agency ISI, had shared Bashir’s name and contact details with Headley when he left for Mumbai in September 2006.

The Crime Branch learned about Headley’s role in 2010. It questioned several people who had spent time with Headley in Mumbai. Many of the witnesses, including filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul, had no idea Headley was a Lashkar man or the real purpose of his frequent visits to the city.

But the assistance provided by Bashir raises serious concerns about investigators’ decision not to subject him to further scrutiny. Headley had earlier mentioned his name in his statement to the FBI. He revealed that Mir had told him that Bashir would offer all possible help.

Mir also told Headley that Bashir wanted to settle down in Canada and he would be rewarded with the same if the mission was successful.

The Pakistani-American also disclosed to the FBI that Bashir accompanied him to Pune. When Headley left India in 2008, he let some of his luggage at Bashir’s residence. He collected it when he returned to the city in 2009.

In their book The Scout, police officers Shirish Thorat and Sachin Waze have raised pertinent questions on the background and identity of Bashir. Headley was granted a pardon by a city court in December last year after he turned approver. During his deposition before the city court, he revealed that ISI provides “financial, military and moral support” to terror outfits.